Safyaan Sharif

Abhishek Singh ∙ 3 Nov 2021

T20 World Cup | New Zealand loose three wickets in powerplay; Guptill reaches 3000 runs in T20Is

Scotland, after being bashed all around the ground by the New Zealand openers Daryl Mitchell and Martin Guptill in the first four overs, made a great comeback and got three quick wickets in a span of 12 balls to get the Kiwis down from 35-0 to 52-3 in their Super 12 clash going on at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The first wicket to fall down was Mitchell who was trapped in front of the stumps by Safyaan Sharif on the first ball of the fifth over. In that same over, New Zealand skipper Kane Willaimson edged a very wide delivery that was going down the leg and Scottish wicketkeeper Matt Cross made no mistake hanging on to it. Williamson went out even without opening his account. The fifth over could have been a double-wicket maiden if not for a wide bowled by the bowler. In the next over, Guptill, who is still at the crease hit 14 runs and with two wides combined, got 16 runs from the last powerplay over. In the very next over, Devon Conway, who was facing only his third ball of the innings, tried to be cheeky on the very first ball of Mark Watt’s spell and paid the price. Trying to reverse sweep, he edged one to Cross. Since the three wickets and the end of the powerplay, the Kiwi scoring rate has slowed down and they were 70-3 at the end of the 10th over mark, with Guptill and Glenn Phillips at the crease. Guptill, who is currently batting at 39 off 30 balls, also crossed the landmark of three thousand T20I runs, becoming the first New Zealander and second person in the world after Indian skipper Virat Kohli to achieve the feat. The 35-year-old has an average of 32 and a strike rate of 136 in his 105 matches so far.